May's rise in private employment was the fourth consecutive monthly gain. However, over these four months the increases have averaged a modest 39,000. The slow pace of improvement from February through May is consistent with the pause in the decline of initial unemployment claims that occurred during the winter months.

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Unlike the estimate of total establishment employment to be released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), today's ADP Report does not include any federal hiring in May for the 2010 Census. For this reason it is reasonable to expect that Friday's figure for nonfarm total employment reported by the BLS will be considerably stronger than today's estimate for nonfarm private employment in the ADP Report.

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In May, construction employment dropped 41,000. This was slightly less than last month's decline of 42,000. This was its thirty-fifth consecutive monthly decline, and brings the total decline in construction jobs since the peak in January 2007 to 2,191,000. Employment in the financial services sector dropped 8,000, resulting in over three years of consecutive monthly decline.